Primary Menu

2014 NQC – Thursday Night Recap

Thursday night is done and not too soon. Maybe it was the long day at work and getting home after missing the first four artists, but tonight truly lacked in memorable moments. So hold on to your hats because tonight the misses may actually outnumber the hits.

Master’s Voice was the first artist of the evening that actually grabbed my attention. It may have only been one song (“This Ship Was Made To Sail”), but it was a good one. When you see a new artist like this come out and give everything they got on one song and the crowd (at least from what I could gather from the webcam) seems like they could care less, it is a bit disheartening. I guarantee you if it was the Booth Brothers out there singing this same song the crowd would have been on their feet cheering for an encore. Am I missing something? Was Southern Gospel ever really a song driven market? Is the artist on stage really all the audience cares about? Would it even matter what songs those artists would stage? The crowd would probably still eat it up. Ugh….

The Isaacs are always a bright spot in a sea of mediocre. Live instruments, powerhouse vocals and great song selection. Can’t ask for more than that.

I was really impressed with the Taylors set tonight; even more so than their Tuesday set. Leslie’s husband, Aaron came out and sang some bass on a couple of quartet classics. Strong set!

Ed O’Neal proved again tonight why he is one of Southern Gospel’s greatest quartet men. He introduced another young tenor singer (who showed out on “Little Is Much”) to the Ed O’Neal university. With that voice it won’t be long before another group comes along and snatches him away from Ed.

Speaking of the Dixie Melody Boys, I thought it was a bit disrespectful to put the Dixie Melody Boys on last. Ed is a true elder statesmen of this industry and he should be treated as such. Any of the number of younger, currently more popular groups could have taken the stage last (ie Booth Brothers/Brian Free & Assurance) so the crowd wouldn’t be leaving in mass exodus while the group was singing. NQC, overall you do well but then there are some moves like this that are oh so bad.

I guarantee you as the Florida Boys neared the end of their musical journey they were never put last on an NQC program.

Speaking of Brian Free & Assurance; was the mix off for certain groups tonight? I thought the group sounded a bit out of their element vocally. Their set lacked any type of power house song.

I missed High Road III, Karen Peck & New River, Gospel Harmony Boys and the Bowling Family. I will watch it back on demand but maybe someone can fill me in on how these groups did tonight.

Since I was at work I missed the Singing News fan awards but did Gerald Wolfe say the Hyssongs won best new trio. The same group that sang one song tonight? You can’t be serious….

Some of the other one song artists deserve a full set next year (see Master’s Voice and Driven).

The Kingdom Heirs shouldn’t feel too bad about Steve French’s absence this week. I think the group is sounding great with Andy singing baritone.

Thanks for the great recaps of NQC! I have enjoyed reading everyone. I agree with what you said about people being interested in artists more than the songs. It is really too bad. What has been your favorite night so far?

Steve Eaton.. Why don’t you like the Booth Brothers ?? That was a nasty dig at them and not very nice of you. I have known these guys personally for 35+ years and they are a great group of gentlemen. They would never make comments like this about others. The thing that I have found that draws people towards the Booth Brothers is that they have the incredibly ability to “paint a picture” with their words. Other artists know the same thing and do this better than the Booth Brothers. The Booth Brothers were taught these things at a very young age by their father, Ron Booth Sr. He was with the original Booth Brothers. Masters Voice is a great group of guys! Personally, I love their song “All You Need is Jesus” but that is MY personal preference. It is sad that Masters Voice got the response they did at the NQC. They certainly did not deserve that. They are a well respected group and should be treated as such. The Booth Brothers deserve the same respect.

Steve, I want to apologize for my quick and rude response. I felt bad for the Booth Brothers winning award after award at the NQC and the crowd no longer positively responding them. You could tell they were embarrassed and hurt to receive the last few awards. I guess I felt you were “jumping on the bandwagon”. I know this weighs heavy on their hearts because they are there to minister for the Lord, not for the awards. It hurts to see other artists to work so hard and not get the recognition they deserve. It is not fair. You comment, “Is the artist on stage really all the audience cares about?”, actually made me think. You are probably right. It’s not a secret that the BB have a strong fan base. Are they there for the songs? Artist? I don’t know. I never thought about it until you brought it up. I have personally seen ladies get googly eyed just talking about them. Like I said, it made me think. In closing, I again want to express how truly sorry I am for my comments.

Believe me, I have been around Southern Gospel my entire life. This is not new. Sadly personality/likability of an artist wins out more than the song being presented. Again, not shaming the artists, they are just doing their jobs. You can lay all that at the fans feet. But, I guess you have that with any musical genre. There are many times when the artist becomes bigger than the music being presented.

I think this revolves around an issue that many in SG don’t want to address. SG is really good clean entertainment. Many call it a ministry, but it’s not really a ministry. It’s a niche area of the entertainment area that revolves around a religious theme. When you view SG from this vantage point a lot of this begin to make sense. It would probably be better if the whole industry admitted this to themselves. A ministry requires you to support things that show little talent and poor preparation just because it’s a ministry. Entertainment pushes that group aside and groups with talent and preparation rise to the top.

This isn’t a knock against the Booth Brothers or any other group mentioned. But, just like Elvis is still huge with his followers, some SG groups have loyal followers who will support them regardless of what they stage…because that group is their favorite clean entertainer.

Don’t know if I articulated my point very well, but I think it explains a lot of questions in the industry.